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Do you drink water from water coolers?

What is water cooler? 

Water cooler – equipment for dispensing bottled water from the large-volume returnable plastic bins (canister). Water can be cooled, warmed or draught in room temperature – it depends on equipment´s type. Similar equipment can be connected directly to the water pipes. Then it modifies and warms or cools the water. But this is different problem and we will not concern on that in this document.

Do you plan to get the water cooler?

Customers should properly think how big water volume (usually is 10 or 18l) will consume and what kind of care will give to the equipment. It is appropriate to find out what service supplier offers. Consumers must be aware of the risk that improper care about the equipment may be the cause of formation of biofilm and mould. Then consumers will tap water of worse quality than in canister or even unhealthy water.

What should you know?

Water coolers must satisfy certain hygienic and safety requirements. They are not allowed to be source of microbial or different kind of contamination and during their usage the quality of water cannot be changed or sensorial quality cannot be affected. Distributor must prove that equipment satisfies all hygienic requirements according to law about protection of public health, in concrete Notice No 38/2001 Coll. about hygienic requirements on the products determined for dealing with food and dish (till the year 2004 there could be review also according to Notice No 37/2001 Coll. about hygienic requirement for the products in direct dealing with drinking water or water works). Safety of circuitry must be verifies by State Testing Laboratory.

The same water which we put into the equipment is also coming out?

Ideally this should be so but is it like this in practise? The answer is not so definite. Because quality of water draught from water cooler depends on many elements. Namely:

-          quality of supplied bottled water

-          kind and quality of used constructional materials on the equipment

-          possibility of cleaning the equipment

-          equipment´s placement

-          right Direction for use

-          sufficient way of servicing – care of user or servicing company.

In connection with water cooler´s problem is necessary to remind the risk of biofilm formation which can cover all surfaces which are in contact with water.

In case of biofilm creation then the water may have stuffy even mouldy flavour and there will be also troubles with microbiological quality. Removing biofilm is a trouble because common desinfection is not succesfull here and microbes are killed just on the top of biofilm. The only effective way of biofilm liquidation is mechanical cleaning. That is why it is necesarry to have equipment with good possibility of cleaning and clean it regularly.

Very important is also quality of bottled water. If bottled water meets requirement according to the relevant notice (No 275/2004 Coll.) it does not mean that this water is ideal for tapping from the water cooler. Waters are never sterile and when you keep two different waters in the same conditions then bacteria will reproduce in very different ways – each bottle of water has different bacteria structure. That is why manufacturers must on the packing of bottled water with the volume larger than 5 litres put conditions of storage and consumption time since the bottle is opened (in this case after setting bottle on water cooler).

General principles on the water cooler´s placement, running and maintainance recommended by National Health Institute:

• Place equipment on the clean and ventilated place protected against the direct sun shine, do not put close to heat sources, volatile organic elements (fuel pumps, printers, dissolvents etc.) and not to wet places because these above mentioned things can help to create biofilm and depreciate the water – taste and smell.

Spring Water should be consumed up to 3 days after setting canister on the equipment – after opening.

• Equipment should be cleaned regularly as recommended by manufacturer and at least once in three months must be done the complete maintainance.


• Maintainance means dismantling all parts of equipment which are in touch with supplied water. Then mechanically brush with detergent preparation, treat and rinse with desinfection. After this follows flush with water (volume of water for flushing should be three times more than volume of canister with drinking water to remove rest of the desinfection).


• Regularly, at least once a year, verify the water quality coming into the equipment as well as coming out of it in microbiological analyse.


• In case of sensorial changes or in case of suspicion that the equipment is contaminated immediatelly put the equipment out of order, provide water analyse and do the complete maintainance.

 Do not forget!

-           Keep bottled water in cold and dark. If the water is storaged incorrectly then microflora can start to grow and the quality and taste of water would get worse.

-           When you set canister on water cooler then write down on the label the date of opening.

-           Try to drink fresh water and notice the date on the label.

-           For long-term consumption is best to drink spring or infantile water.

-           If you use the water from water coolers for your infant to be sure boil the water       before.

-           Natural mineral waters with the higher amount of minerals should not be the ground of the common drinkable regime. It is better to alternate them and drink up to 0,5l per day.

-           It is recommended to keep the simple operation diary to write down there dates of maintainance or other important interventions and put there all analyses.

-           Determine a person responsible for the water cooler´s running.

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